For all of you guys who have a GM tilt column partially torn apart with broken parts that dont seem to be available atleast for some of you I have good news.
Long story made short, I broke the upper Inner bearing retainer while cleaning it because it was 42 years old and brittle, now most of the time they are broken when you remove them from the get go which causes slop, well today there is an answer for this broken part you just have to know what to look for.
Saginaw who makes the 1971-72 tilt for the c10 pickup used that bearing retainer for the tilt mechanism clear up untill 1999 but they used it for the Upper Outter bearing, same part different application, but obviously the good news here is they made millions upon millions of them over the last 42 years and you can still get them.
Also if you lose any of the balls don't freak out, your local ace hardware store and probably others carry ball bearings of all sizes so they can be replaced, just take your caliper with you and measure to find the replacement at the store win/win.
Here is a picture of the bearing retainer.
